Alicia is a San Jose native, who most recently worked for the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) as the Director of the San José Charter School Consortium (Consortium). When Alicia was in college, a study was done on her childhood neighborhood that found that one in one hundred young people had the credits necessary for college. Determined to help change that statistic, Alicia began her work at Downtown College Prep (DCP), a charter high school whose mission was to prepare underachieving students to be the first in their families to thrive at four-year colleges or universities, and ultimately became Principal. Her work now with the Consortium and CCSA is focused on ensuring that all students have a seat at a high quality school and to support the incredible educators and schools that exist in Santa Clara County and beyond. In 2008 the Silicon Valley Business Journal named Alicia as one of the Silicon Valley’s top “40 under 40” leaders. Alicia is a graduate of Santa Clara University where she studied Political Science, Spanish and Ethnic Studies. She received her Ed. M. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and has served on the Boards of the Sacred Heart Nativity School, the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens and Rocketship Education schools.